In one of the most desperate and humiliating moments of Edmonton Oilers franchise history, there came a bolt out of the blue that made almost everything better, at least in the longer term.

Shortly after the Oilers had lost two good and possibly great young players Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway on offer sheets in August 2024, new GM Stan Bowman made a quick trade to bolster Edmonton’s forward depth, trading a fourth round pick for young Russian forward Vasily Podkolzin.

In the two years and two months since that trade, Podkolzin has grown from a throwaway piece for Vancouver into an impressive top-line power forward for the Oilers, replacing much that was lost when Holloway, another young power forward, left for St. Lou.

Podkolzin, now 25, has never been hotter as an NHLer than he is right now, scoring five goals in five games while playing on Edmonton’s top line with Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid.

In the hoopla around Podkolzin just now, I was surprised to find two things, first a comment from Russian hockey legend Igor Larionov comparing Podz at that time to Oilers Hall of Fame captain Mark Messier.

As Vancouver sportscaster Rick Dhaliwal reported in June 2020, “Who does Podkolzin remind Larionov of in the NHL: ‘That is a good question, Mark Messier, I see Messier in him. His character and desire to get better enables him to get better and develop.'”

One year later, after Podkolzin scored 14 goals in 79 games in his rookie season for Vancouver, sports commentator Dave Pratt did a poll of Canucks fans asking: “Do you believe Igor Larionov when he describes Canucks rookie Vasili Podkolzin as ‘A Young Mark Messier’?”

The results were overwhelmingly positive, with 50.2 per cent voting “Yes!” to that, and 16.4 per cent voting “Hell Yes!”

There’s been plenty of gloating in Edmonton about how the Oilers robbed Vancouver of Podkolzin. Those Messier comps, which so many Vancouver fans put weight in, got me wondering about exactly what went wrong in Vancouver. To get an answer, I went over years of stories out of the Vancouver Sun to see how things soured for the young player there, especially now that this Messier-aspect of Podkolzin is becoming apparent in his game with the Oilers.

He’s not Messier but he’s one helluva tough, aggressive and skilled winger here.

Essentially, what I see with Podkolzin is the same thing that happened with Dylan Holloway with the Oilers. Both were young power forwards who needed some time to develop at the pro level, but both were on teams with immense pressure to win now, with both coaches and general managers worried about losing their jobs and, consequently, prioritizing veteran forwards over inexperienced ones, as promising as both Podkolzin and Holloway were.

Podkolzin, after all, was Vancouver’s 10th overall pick in the 2019 draft, while Holloway was Edmonton’s 14th overall pick in the 2020 draft.

In his first two years after the 2019 draft, Podkolzin played for St. Petersburg SKA and its farm team, Neva SKA, where he was under contract on a two-year deal. Like many young forwards in the KHL, he got limited playing time for St. Petersburg, though he finally blossomed for the big team in 2021 KHL playoffs, with 11 points in 16 games. In December 2020, he was captain of the Russian team at the World Junior Championships, which is where he moved his coach, Igor Larionov, to make the Messier comparison.

At the 2019 draft, Vancouver GM Jim Benning compared Podkolzin to young NHL power forward Timo Meier for his boardwork, speed and strength. “He’s got the size and strength and can get to the net,” said Benning. “He’s going to be a good complementary player for some of our really skilled players. He plays a heavy game and we’ve seen in the playoffs that you need those strong guys who can get to the net and protect the puck.

TSN’s Craig Button also praised the player: “He’s got a desire to make a difference, he’s got great hands, he’s got a great mind. I don’t have any question that Podkolzin will be able to provide significant, significant abilities to help the offence.”

Upon his signing in the summer of of 2021, Steve Ewen of the Sun wrote: “It’s well-documented that Vancouver could use help on its third line. The assumption is that Podkolzin could find a home there instantly. Could he be even better than that? Could he challenge for second-line minutes right away, like Nils Hoglander did this past season as a rookie?”

Rhys Jessop, a former Florida Panthers scout based in Vancouver, offered Ewen this assessment: “I think fans are going to love him. I really value what he brings to the table. He plays a really aggressive and forceful game, based around intensity on the forecheck. His skill level is quite good, but his stride will need some refinement. I think he could be a really effective Top 6 winger for a long time.”

Vancouver that year had strong centres in Bo Horvat, Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller, but there were openings on the wing, with only a few veteran forwards (Brock Boeser, Connor Garland, Tanner Pearson, Alex Chiasson) locked in ahead of Podkolzin. He got more playing time when the team fired coach Travis Green 15 games into the year, replacing him with Bruce Boudreau, who tried to keep things simple for Podkolzin, essentially telling him to just get out there and play.

Podz impressed veteran Canucks with his work ethic, captain Bo Horvat saying, “I think he gets it already… He’s one of the hardest-working guys in practice and doesn’t take a shift off.”

For his part, Boudreau tried to get extra ice time for the Russian rookie as the year went along, at least 12 minutes per game:  “You can really tell when he’s on and feeling it, and when he’s not. Young guys go through these ups and downs and there’s no way around it. By giving him more ice and responsibility, he’s really taken to it right now and, hopefully, it will continue.”

The Canucks changed coaches half-way through this season as well, firing Boudreau with his 18 wins in 46 games and replacing him with Rick Tocchet, who got 20 wins in 36 games.

Heading into the year, hopes were high for Podkolzin, but there was also more competition with new forwards coming onto the roster such as rugged Dakota Joshua and attacking wingers Anthony Beauvillier, Andrei Kuzmenko and checker Ilya Mikheyev.

The GM had also changed from Benning to Patrik Alvin, and Podkolzin’s ice time dropped one minute per game, from 13 to 12 minutes.

Podkolzin struggled so much, with just three assists in his first 16 games, that he was sent down to Abbotsford of the AHL, where he had 18 points in 28 games. “The first two weeks were really hard,” said Podkolzin afterwards. “You start thinking too much. ‘What should I do? What’s happening?’ I had two ways to go. Give up or work. And it was good for me to get some AHL games to remember who you are and start appreciating.”

In the summer, Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet told the Sun’s Patrick Johnston that he wanted Nils Hoglander and Podkolzin to be “energy bunnies” in the coming season.

“Can they be the first on the forecheck, can they get the crowd going at Rogers? Those are the things you want these young guys to do, just add a little bit of spice and life to your team.”

At training camp, Tocchet added that at his best, Podkolzin was like a moose or a bull. “When he moves his feet, he’s really a bull. Where he and some of our young guys get in trouble is with reads, but I like to get Podkolzin out there in certain situations.:

Tocchet also said:  “If he plays predictable hockey, he’ll be good. If he knows exactly where the puck is going, that’s where the moose comes in. If he’s waiting to go, he’s standing around. And he’ll be late everywhere. He needs to be aggressive and not read the play after it happens.”

But the pressure  on Tocchet was on to keep up the momentum, especially with Vancouver boasting such talented players as Pettersson, Horvat, Miller, Elias Lindholm, d-men Quinn Hughes, Nikita Zadorov, and Filip Hronek, and goalie Thatcher Demko.

Podkolzin again struggled, with just two assists in 19 games for Vancouver. In Abbotsford he put up 28 points in 44 games.

“He works so hard, but there are just things in his game with time and space, and he doesn’t move his feet,” said Tocchet. “He doesn’t see the play. It’s like chess. You have to think two steps before you make the play.”

That year the Canucks made the playoffs and took Edmonton to seven games in the second round, but Podkolzin got into just two playoff matches.

By then, Vancouver media were repeatedly questioning the drafting of Podkolzin and wondering how much better the Canucks would be if they had taken American sniper Matt Boldy, grabbed up two picks later in 2019 by the Minnesota Wild.

Nonetheless in April 2024, Podkolzin signed a new two-year deal with Vancouver for $1 million per season.

“We are happy with how hard Vasily has worked on his game to try and become a more consistent player,” Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin said in a news release.

“While there is still room for him to grow, starting the year in Abbotsford and working his way back up to Vancouver shows the type of commitment and dedication we want in all our players. Our group looks forward to helping Vasily continue to improve and get better.”

To keep Podkolzin, Vancouver would either have to keep him on their opening roster for the 2024-25 season or risk putting him on waivers to send him back to the AHL.

Given that the Canucks had more faith and hope in wingers like Brock Boeser, Conor Garland, Nils Hoglander, newcomers Jake DeBrusk and Kiefer Sherwood, and youngsters such as Arshdeep Bains and Jonathan Lekkerimaki, the team decided to trade Podkolzin in late August 2024 when Bowman reached out to make a move.

Said the Sun’s Patrick Johnston: “Podkolzin should have landed. He had a strong pre-draft season. He was good at the Hlinka. He was good at the World Jr. A Challenge. He was good at the World Juniors. He had played professional games in the VHL and even in the KHL. He wasn’t shy to attack the net. So where did this player go wrong?

“First off, there’s the contract Podkolzin was under when he was drafted. He was going to be in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) for two more years. This was well known. It’s believed it turned a couple teams away from him. The inability to control his development for two full years was identified as an issue. And, in hindsight, they were right. Playing for SKA Saint Petersburg – the richest team in the KHL – was good for his profile, but not for his playing time. Podkolzin was mostly a spare part, sat at the end of the bench and told not to be seen nor heard from.

Johnston continued: “His first month in the NHL, he played less that nine minutes per game. He was a fourth liner. What was the point of that? If he wasn’t going to play much off the hop, why not let him play a ton in the AHL and find his way back to being The Man, which he hadn’t been able to be since he was drafted? His ice time did increase in November, but that Canucks squad was quickly circling the drain. Obviously, the Canucks didn’t plan for their season to go as badly as it did – but did management really think that he would be a solution to the problem? Now, in the long run, he did find his feet in the second half under Bruce Boudreau – but two coaches in your first season isn’t easy for most players, let alone a raw rookie… His scoring nosedived after his first season with the Canucks, scoring just four goals over his final 58 NHL games in Vancouver.

“So what happened? Watching him play, you saw him consistently avoiding driving the net. He’d get the puck on the side boards and instead of driving to the middle, as he did in junior, he’d reverse the puck back around behind the net. A safe, smart, systems-friendly play – but not the pizzazz the Canucks’ coaching staff wanted.”

In Edmonton, GM Stan Bowman and analytics Michael Parkatti saw Podkolzin as a good bet, especially given his low-cost two-year deal.

A few weeks in the 2024-25 season, Bob Stauffer of Oilers Now heaped praise on Bowman’s trade and reported talking to then Oilers asst. coach Glen Gulutzan, who told him: “Look at how hard this guy works. He’s going to exceed everybody’s expectations. We stole a player here.”

Podkolzin quickly worked his way up from being an extra forward to a third-liner, then earned time on Leon Draisaitl’s wing as the 2024-25 season progressed. He got eight goals and 26 points in 82 games, but on a team that craved hard-working forechecking and backchecking players, he hit the spot.

Last year, he only got better, 19 goals and 37 points in 82 games, his best NHL season.

And now he’s flying high.

As for the Messier comparisons, I can envision some alternate universe where Mark Messier had to play in Russia as a 20-year-old — where he knew no one, didn’t speak the language and didn’t understand the hockey or native culture — and then took a few years to find his footing.

In Edmonton, much of the success of young players like Messier, Glenn Anderson, Paul Coffey and Jari Kurri came because they were on the same team as Wayne Gretzky, a one-man game-winning scoring machine, who took much of the pressure on and off the ice away from every other Oiler.

Again, I’m not saying that Podkolzin is Messier. Not a chance.

But I’m saying Igor Larionov isn’t crazy, and that Podkolzin has some of the same qualities as that Oiler great, mainly forceful, aggressive hitting, immense strength on his skates, skill with the puck, a willingness to stand up for teammates and a fierce desire to do well for the Oilers.